Interview: Bex Marshall - Need & Greed

Whether it’s for friends visiting
her at home or folks
she’s just met in a pub, Bex
Marshall tries to perform in front
of people every single day. “I’ll
play them some songs,” she says.
“I’ve found nothing more valuable
than playing in front of an audience—it enhances my music.”

Marshall’s never been one to shy away from
a crowd, and listening to the skillful bluesy
twang of her guitar and the matching richness
and intensity of her voice, one would
be foolish to urge her otherwise. Her latest
album, House of Mercy, merges every bit of
blues, soul, roots, folk, and ragtime that
has influenced her to create a colorful, fiery
sound that matches her equally exuberant
personality. The concept for the album
came from her U.K. home base, with a
little help from her husband and friends.

“House of Mercy is the name of the
radio station that we run from our home,”
Marshall explains. “We’ve had hundreds
of musicians come through our doors and
this album is a tribute to the music that
goes on in our home and the music that
surrounds us. The musicians that contributed
to this are those who have come
through, so it’s very special to us.”

The end result of months of writing and
recording in her London home studio is a
powerful album that displays her prowess
as a guitarist and songwriter, and songs like
“Gone Fishin’,” “Love,” and “Tough Times”
exhibit her masterful use of slide guitar, soloing,
and a unique approach to fingerpicking.

“I tried a lot of new techniques on
this album,” says Marshall. “I’ve been
developing a style that I use on my solo
performances where it’s almost a ragtime
technique with a percussive feel to it. I play
with all the fingers on my right hand and
I have really long nails, so I use all of them
as a plectrum. I use a quick little butterfly
frailing with pull-offs all over it, and that
gets a lot of notes out at once.”

Her maturity and evolution as a guitarist
is evident on this album, as her playing surpasses
even that on her highly praised previous
album, 2008’s Kitchen Table. Her diligence
toward practicing her craft propelled her to
create a name for herself early on in her career,
though it took an unfortunate bit of tragedy
to push her to realize her full potential.

“I wasn’t confident in doing lead parts
or two-lined riffs in the beginning of my
playing, but after my first album my bass
player and producer Roland Harris committed
suicide and I was the one who
found him,” she says. “It really affected
me, because he was such a good friend and
my staunchest supporter. Within my anger I realized that I would play my own bass
lines from there on out, so I began using
my thumb technique to get the bass riff on
top of the guitar riff. If he’s going to leave
me, I’m going to do it myself. I’m sure he’s
up there laughing at me now.”

Marshall’s weapons of choice to convey
her complex and rhythmic riffs are her
collection of Ozark electro-acoustic resonator
guitars. Resonator guitars have a long
history in ragtime, roots, and blues music,
and their twangy sound and rustic timbre
give Marshall’s music the authentic tone
that her style calls for.

“The first band I took notice of that
used a resonator guitar was Dire Straits,”
says Marshall, “and I just loved how it
sounded. I always thought they were
cool-looking guitars, but when I first
played one, I knew it was the only guitar I
wanted to play. It’s got a dirty tone and it
feels good to strum and it reacts to fingerpicking
really well. The slide sounds great
on it, but I try not to overplay with it
because I love simple slide lines where one
note will make you scream.”

While resonator guitars are likely the
only ones you’ll see her working onstage, it
was an acoustic guitar that first piqued her
interest in music. As a young girl growing
up in the U.K., Marshall found the key to
her destiny in an unlikely place.

“The exact moment that I first began
playing a guitar was when I opened an old
cupboard under the stairs of my home when
I was 8 years old and found an abandoned
guitar in there,” recalls Marshall. “It only
had two strings and in that moment I knew
it was mine. So I would sit in the kitchen
and just strum away on it, and I realized I
had urgency and a need to be able to play
it. Once I met people who played, I learned
very quickly on it. I immediately knew that
was what I wanted to do.”

And even with the notoriety she receives for
her playing, Marshall continually strives to better
it, practicing every moment she can. But
it’s more than recognition that drives her; it’s
her love of playing that still excites her today.

“I pick my guitar up every single day
because I need to connect with it constantly,”
she shares. “I’m always writing new stuff, especially
when I’m supposed to be practicing for a
show. [Laughs.] Ever since I first held a guitar,
it’s been greed more than need and it drives me
every day. I want to learn everything—musically
I want it all.”

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